THE CRAZY HUNTER by Kay Boyle

Kay Boyle is one of those forgotten legends who deserves a proper renaissance. A star of the inter-War literary scene, she published alongside the likes of Hemingway and Sartre, only to fade into relative obscurity. Although The Crazy Hunter was one of her earlier novels, she considered it one of her best, and I can certainly see why.

At seventeen, Nancy is ready to leave the family farm, and escape the cold war being waged between her parents. In a sappy attempt to curry her favour, her kindly drunken dad buys her a horse but it all goes awry when the animal is blinded in an accident soon after. Nancy’s mother insists the horse be put down, but the girl is hell bent on saving it. The dad sees in the lame beast his final chance to prove his worth as both man and father.

Boyle is admirably restrained in the way she builds towards the inevitably cataclysmic end. I’m not sure at what point this seemingly quaint pastoral tale turned into something so thrilling, so morally complex that my heart became lodged firmly in my throat but by the final page I was hyperventilating. An unexpected blast!

The Crazy Hunter by Kay Boyle
Pushkin Press, 2024 (First Pub. 1938)
158 pages